Disbelief
by ForeverinMoonlight
Summary: Aizen - the ego was bruised, but it wasn't defeated. -Spoilers for chapter 421 onwards-


_Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, and I doubt that's ever going to change._

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**Disbelief**

Fury. Unmitigated rage like hellfire, searing malice engulfing his very being as Aizen Sousuke focused on his target. He could not project enough heat into the glare, nor will the flames to become corporeal and attempt to force upon the other a slow, agonising end. Though oh, how he dearly wanted to. Beyond want, actually. It would be so easy, pitifully easy just to-

No. It _would have been_ – past tense a reality by that lodged in his chest, long-sought for- _long-deserved _power ebbing from him like water flowing out of a tilted container. And even that was chipping.. Crumbling.. _Shattering _before his widening eyes..!

_Disappearing.. It's all disappearing.._

..How was this possible? How could the Hougyoku have forsaken him? How could this confounded seal be actually _working _and how could he.. _he.._

_Him._ Standing quite calmly there, inscrutable as could be- Him. _Him._ He _dared _to stand before Aizen Sousuke, _dared _to defy the inevitable and worse still, turn that previously superior intellect of his away from his usual lamentable purpose to.. to _spitting _upon him! Himself, who was greater than anything ever seen! How..

That man. That mere... Shinigami. Wasted and disgraced and _inferior_. Lacking in any vision, any drive, any true power – _naturally_, of course he had not what it took to ascend to the heavens; of course he was nothing resembling a god. And yet that this... _this_ was happening because of _him_...?

It boiled Aizen's blood just to _contemplate _it.

'Bastard' was not a strong enough word with which to label this despicable man.

He settled for the name instead, the appellation tasting foul on his tongue. It was nothing, however, compared to the hatred conveyed through it.

"_URAHARA KISUKE!_" Aizen roared, and had wondered if the aforementioned would enjoy this eruption. Was enjoying the whole breakdown – he would have, in his place. How he would have gloated, rightly so, as the reiatsu drained away from the Shinigami as he lay broken and bleeding on the floor, Aizen taking in every last contortion and every animalistic scream, savouring it, the pain behind the brittle cracks of the fading façade as Urahara realised the end was impending should his God be merciful enough to g-

The bastard had simply kept staring. ..Not a wisp of a change in expression; unfathomable incarnate. A refusal to display even that weakness – not a shred of pity, something which had long-settled on Kurosaki's face for all to see.

Oh yes, he had not forgotten about the boy. Still just a boy, still to be eaten, still full of human idiocy and delusion and blindness which allowed that miserable feeling to even target a being such as himself.

_That_, Aizen wanted to snarl, _was the true pity_.

But the seal was finally enclosing, and there was one last look at the two of them – the both of them who had brought out the raging fire from the gulf beneath it and _how DARE THEY THEY HAD NO IDEA-_

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That was the last thing he could remember – well, clearly anyway. The beginnings of a sentence had formed, parting words desperate to escape, but he could not recall what he had intended to say as he had been lost thereafter to temporary oblivion. _Fleeting; TEMPORARY; worthless as a Hollow's existence_. It mattered little. What _do _you say to people such as those? What could he convey to them in those split seconds that they could possibly understand? ..If there was something fitting, it was unknown to him.

It was a mystery, equally, why he was still recalling it. Aizen thought he had decided to discard the memory, or at least the feelings associated with it. The fire had had time enough to cool down.. _burning, frothing like molten lava_ and there were no remnants to sit there and fester.

_That mere human, in a higher dimension-?_

_Oppression aside, zanpakutou disappearing, nothing gone and nothing left it should have been over-_

_-No evolution what was this why wasn't it over- HIM- Urahara-_

_Standing there. Staring, only the staring and the seal cheap tricks shouldn't be working HE WAS EVOLVING and yet draining away and why was it over but not for THEM-_

_No._ Stop it.

Stop it. This was not pretermission. Smouldering should not be a part of this silence, already lined with lingering unease from his Shinigami 'captors', whenever they were required to be near.

Fear.. How laughable. They should save it for when they had cause to be truly frightened. He was a being far beyond all conceivable level, certainly, but _just wait until he was their God._ Besides, only the inferior let themselves be controlled by their own emotions. For himself to entertain that flaw - well, if it was possible it was not fitting in the slightest.

Yes.. Why bother with the mundane when the facts were so clear? 'Defeat' was far from the description of what had been dealt to him, and even 'setback'... Well. Such a concept failed to exist if you did not allow it to hinder you.

In his case, it was downright impossibility. The course was set, and the path and heights he was walking were far beyond anyone else's reach. They could all wallow in their conveniently twisted 'truths', but he, Aizen Sousuke, was far from stopped.

He smiled amicably at a Shinigami 'escort' through pitch-black 'bonds'. Yes, he was hardly caged, like flies such as that one could hardly blot out the sun, could they? He wondered why they tried, why they focused on unattainable goal after unattainable goal to fuel an existence that was barely worth having. _So easy to crush_. _So quick to die._

Such a pity.

Aizen could humour for now; indulge in their delusions for his own convenience and mild nostalgia (ah, seeing the Central 46 again was going to bring back such _wonderful _memories). Their unfounded arrogance was beneath enlightenment and he could forgive such ignorance could he be bothered to actually consider it.

As long as he desired, he would stay. As long as he wished, he would smile at the irony. But the day of his own true awakening – and theirs – drew ever closer. He was to ascend higher than ever before – higher than mere humans or certain pestilent Shinigami could ever hope to emulate (that is the closest you shall ever come to triumph, _Urahara Kisuke_).

Yes, everything was bubbling along nicely. His plans could still progress, others could be put into place. ..Solutions were always possible to interference caused by the predictable, you understand.

_Speaking of the predictable.._ The assembly hall awaited in front of them. Aizen's mind drifted to the last time he had been here – how long ago had it been? ..It was inconsequential, he supposed. The manner of entry this time may well be different but the end result.. Exactly the same. _Exactly _the same...

Whoever was in the Central 46 this time mattered little. They were identical – equally clueless and arrogant and in standing (ie. trivial and best put out of their misery). At least they gave Aizen something to occupy his time with – how and in what circumstances to kill them in? Or should he bother? Really, it would almost be too much of a service.

As they strapped their true God, beyond all possibility of Shinigami and Hollows and simple humans combined, into a chair Aizen closed his eyes, half-tempted to fall asleep during the 'trial'.

This was all meaningless. There was nothing they could do to affect him. However deep the prison, however murky the cage, it did not matter to him. Avici was but a delay to something they were powerless to halt.

Aizen smiled. He already sat upon the throne... all they had left to do was to _believe _it.

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**A/N:** So yes.. I find Aizen very difficult to write (though a furious Aizen is slightly easier to write than an 'in-control' one xD) so I hope the characterisation was decent enough in this. And, of course, that you enjoyed the fic as a whole. Thanks for reading, anyway!


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